Yorkshire Water chief to leave after company gets lowest environmental rating

Yorkshire Water chief executive Nicola Shaw is to step down on 1 January, a day after the company received the Environment Agency’s lowest possible environmental rating. Her departure comes amid scrutiny of the firm’s performance and criticism over payments to its boss.

Shaw, who has led the company since 2022, will be replaced by Nicola Medalova, a chartered environmental health officer who previously worked for National Grid. Yorkshire Water said Medalova would join on Monday for a transition period before taking over as chief executive in the new year.

The Environment Agency gave the company one star out of four on Thursday and classified it as “poorly performing”. It said the firm was responsible for 260 pollution incidents in 2025, its highest total since 2011.

Shaw said in a statement that it was “the right time” to leave. She said she was “extremely proud” of what colleagues had achieved, while acknowledging that “a huge amount of work” remained.

She has faced criticism for failing to disclose £1.3m in shareholder-funded payments made in two instalments between 2023 and 2025. In December last year, Shaw called the lack of transparency a “mistake”, while saying the payments were “not for me to decide”. The payments became public the previous August, when the government banned Yorkshire Water and five other water companies from paying what it called unfair bonuses to bosses.

Ofwat fined Yorkshire Water £47m in 2024 over historic sewage leaks. Medalova said the company faced “huge challenges” as well as opportunities for improvement.